Letter 5030: People who are well-known and well-tested deserve a ready recommendation, so they may come to the attention of good...

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 380 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus|AI-assisted
friendship

To the well known and proven a ready recommendation is owed, so that they may come to the notice of good men under an honorable endorsement. Theodulus, a young man of sincere uprightness, flourishes by the favor of many, whom it is praiseworthy to please; but he hopes that the difficulty of fortune, which makes the course of his life harsh, can be removed by your support. I ask, therefore, that you smile kindly upon his wishes, lest either my testimony be judged to have been held for nothing, or an empty outcome mock his hopes.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

Bene cognitis ac probatis commendatio prompta debetur, ut ad notitiam bonorum
sub honesta adstipulatione perveniant. Theodulus sincerae probitatis adulescens mul-
10 torum gratia viget, quibus placere laudabile est; sed fortunae difiicultatem, quae cur-
sum vitae eius exasperat, adminiculo tuo sperat posse removeri. quaeso igitur, ut
votis eius benignus adrideas, ne aut meum testimonium pro nihilo habitum iudicetur,
aut spebus illius exitus inanis inludat.

xxxxvrai (xxxxvn) a. 393?

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern symmachus retranslated v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/qaureliisymmach00seecgoog

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